Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Boyton

This church comprises a late 14th or early 15th century tower with a nave and chancel rebuilt in 1869 by William Smith. The building is constructed of flint rubble and knapped flint with ashlar dressings, finished with a plain tile roof.

The plan consists of a west tower, nave, chancel, south western porch, and north eastern vestry. The tower is built of rubble walling with occasional freestone blocks. Its west face features diagonal buttresses, rebuilt to their lower bodies in brick and dying back into the corners via three offsets. A central doorway has a hollow-chamfered ashlar surround with hood mould, now blocked with 18th or 19th century English bond brick. Below the first stage window runs a string course. This window contains two Decorated lights with cinquefoil heads and a dagger at the apex, mostly of 19th century date. The belfry has a cusped lancet with louvres set in a square ashlar surround. A string course runs below the parapet, which is formed of ashlar blocks of 18th or 19th century date with a moulded coping. The south face is similar but lacks both the doorway and first stage window. The north face resembles the south face except the belfry lancet is slightly right of centre, and a projecting staircase turret with a lean-to roof projects from the left. The east face abuts the nave with no openings, but features a gargoyle to the right of centre below the upper string course.

The nave is completely faced in knapped flint, as is the chancel. On the south face, a gabled porch sits at the left with diagonal buttresses. The central door surround is mostly of 19th century date but appears to incorporate portions of an earlier medieval doorway, with hollow chamfer and double-ogee mouldings and a hood mould. Flanking this are rectangular windows. To the right are two curvilinear windows with cusped heads of two lights, divided by a buttress with two offsets. A similar buttress stands to the far right. The north face has two similar windows with different patterns of curvilinear tracery, divided by a buttress comparable to that on the south face. To the left projects a gabled vestry with a two-light Decorated window beneath the gable and a chimney to its summit. Single cusped lights on the right flank have chamfered ashlar surrounds. The left flank preserves a reset Romanesque doorway with an inner arch and two outer relieving arches. The two outer arches feature nook shafts to their corners, which continue across the arch as continuous large-scale angle-beads. Chevron patterns appear on the outer face and intrados, as well as the sides and jambs of the outer arch. The two inner arches have chevron patterning turned outwards forming angled peaks and troughs. The innermost arch also carries ball decoration to the voussoirs. To the far left hand corner of the nave stands a portion of ashlar walling with a Romanesque nook shaft.

The chancel is lower in ridge and reduced in width. Its south face has two windows with hollow chamfers and cusping to the apex, as does the north face. The east face features diagonal buttresses dying into the corners via two offsets. The string course is raised to the centre to meet the sill of a central three-light window with Decorated 19th century tracery of cusped ogee heads with three encircled trefoils to the apex.

Internally, the porch doorway has a richly moulded surround with a large casement moulding set with small square bosses showing shields, leopards' heads, and fleurons. The nave has a double chamfered tower arch and a 19th century roof of ties, arched braces, and principals. The chancel features a 19th century roof of scissor-beam construction.